New Beer Sunday (Week 666)

Pilsners, Lagers, + Dunkels… All new in Nov 2017, sort by preference.

Cricket's Nocturne | Cricket Hill
4.1/5 rDev +10.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Appearance: Opaque beautiful blackish-brown in color with a 1" tan head that laces extremely nicely, and has large bubbles. Beautiful color, as good as they come in black lager.
Smell: the mild malt sweetness is pleasant, appealing, inviting. Roasty, but not over powering. A winter beer.
Taste: Of course malt, but subtle. Less cloying than brown ales, with some herb, earth, chocolate, grass, and hint of bread. Bitterness moderate, fresh tasting, and with nice sweet-bitter-earthy balance. A great session beer. Approachable, will be great with food, tonight shrimp cocktail and sphagetti with meatballs. Stands up to any foods. A great seafood dinner or roast beer. Also great with cheese.

Mouthfeel: medium-to-full bodied, a little creamy. Crisp, sessionable, satisfying. Aftertaste short-lived. Leaves one in a good earthy not too sweet place.

Overall: this is a drinkable dark lager that can be a session beer. Great NJ Brew! worth trying out. I will definitely get more. If I am to drink dark lager, this would be near the top of my list. I could see drinking this and surprising my friends with it.
Aecht Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier | Brauerei Heller-Trum
4.1/5 rDev +3.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Amazing to find a beer that's so different and original: it earns high marks on the first go.
A) pours a clear, dark pale golden body, with a thin cap that films and laces a few dots.
S) Pleasant fall damp air tinged with campfire smoke. Plus pale malt, honey lathered on crackers, and floral hops.
T) Follows smell, with MORE smoke, as in smoked salmon or bacon, honey, on malt and white crackers, and landing in a fall flower bed mixed with fallen, earthy damp leaves and forest floor. Delicious and complex, perfect with raw oysters.
F) Feel is soft, medium weight, smooth, finishing off-dry, and with lingering resonance.
O) My first experience of a great smoke in beer. Must try. Must try them all now!
Dunkel Jesse And The Rippers | Cambridge
4/5 rDev +2.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Session Dunkel.
1) Color of pumpernickel bread, low head and fizz, a streak of lace. Cola, ruby,
2) Bread and perfume, sweet, but balanced.
3) Best dunkel ever, thick black bread in liquid form, juicy, malty, very pleasant upward finish. Sweet grain while clean. Fresh.
4) Feels mid-bodied, low carb, like all their brews, and finished clean - great food beer.
Prima Pils | Victory
4/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
The reviewers are unanimous, this may be the best-in-class American Pilsner. I'd like to taste it blind vs other top pils like Oskar, Urquell, etc.
Victory is a top east coast brewery, consistent, clean, and surprising without wobbly out of balance brews. Bravo! You must try them!
A: Poured into pint glass, luscious white head, faded fast not much, but a little dotty lacing, the tiny bubbles I recall from my Dad's first beers when I was a kid rising in a tall glass.
S: Hops and citrus, but so much more subtle than our hoppier beers. Perfume, lemon, grass, herbs. Crisp, floral, "the smell of a woman in the sunshine".
Taste: Very appetizing and dry. Starts refreshing fresh bread crust; grows into a tingle of hoppy bitterness with grassy and herbal over tones, finally a super crisp, clean finish. Lovely arc, lovely appetizer and with food: Oysters, clams, sausage, brats, fish, crabs.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied with lots of carbonation, but that oh so subtle pilsner tingle and finish, light and airy and summery, also a kissing kind of beer. Your mouth just feels good all over.
Drinkability: So far my favorite of the style.
Polestar Pilsner | Left Hand
3.9/5 rDev +7.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
I am a left hand fan. This pilsner is as good as any.
A: Dense white head atop a pale brass body, with pin point carbonation and a bit of lace.
S: Smell is the weakest link here. Grass, white biscuit malt, flowers, and bit of skunk.
T: Lovely. Could drink this all night. Authentic, lovely hop and sweet citric, grassy profile. Light and tingly refreshing finish.
MF: Lovely body and finish, good weight, leaves you in a great refreshing place, Great Food BEER!
As good as pilsner gets.
This Town | Carton
3.9/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
This beer This Town is unretired because I bought a 6 at the brewer which pictures the new First Ave brewery on the can.
I enjoyed its early incarnation 3 years ago when Augie spoke at our TEDxAsburyPark conference (next on May 19, 2018 on Passion at Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park).
a) Fogged straw color body with rising tiny bubbles that build a puffy dense, lasting and lacing white head in a pilsner glass.
s) As it should be, grassy, hay, sun-baked straw, mown grass, over a white cracker base.
t) As the smell, but more EURO - reminding me of Luxembourg and French light lagers, which have a bit of adjunct funk that bring them down a notch. Saved by peppery, scrubbing finish.
f) Thin, light, bright, with clean crisp finish. Light beer.
o) Grass-cutting beer for sure. Not sure I need to pay craft price for it, but noble effort.

 

Had struggled to find a beer for this week. A local IPA came out around Halloween called Hail Lucifer but it was a brewery only beer. I had some at a tailgate but never got an actual can. My best friend from college recently moved to Minnesota. I hit him up for a bottle expecting him to get a '17 bottle and ended up here.



4.49/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

A: Beer pours a very black body from the bottle. Nice finger amount of creamy tan head. Head and lacing lingered about while drinking.

S: Aromas are a nice mix of roasty chocolates and dark fruits. The fruits add to the typical stout smells that are present for the beer.

T: Roasty malt flavors up front on this beer. Bits of chocolate and coffee mix with fruits like raisins and pruins. Beer flavors blend well.

M: For a double digit ABV this one is smooth and easy to drink. I wish the beer was thicker however. The beer seems a tad thin.

O: Very good representation of a stout. The fruit flavors add a lot to the usual flavors/aromas. The beer is easy drinking for a high ABV but could use a bit more body overall.

 

Haven't been on a NBS in a while, but I'm home today and saw the 666 and thought it was funny so figured I'd join in on the fun. Starting the day off with a Baltic porter from Tired Hands called King Royal.

"Notes / Commercial Description:
King Royal is our Baltic Porter brewed with a seriously huge variety of specialty malts and a touch of malted oats. Hopped with a bit of Chinook and fermented with lager yeast, then lagered for three weeks. Dense notes of dried fruit, dark bread crust, and a touch of coffee. Artwork done by the great @mikeillustrated"

The beer pours dark brown black with a creamy frothy light brown foam head that eventually dissipates after a while of drinking. The aromas of slightly sweet dark and roasty malts jump out of the glass when poured, dried fruit like apricot, raisin, fig, prune, dark bread crust, malty oats, caramel, molasses, brown sugar, some nutty maple, big dark chocolate, dark roast coffee notes, a hint of licorice, mild apple, pear, grape, with some spice and woodsy floral earthy herbal grassy pine. The taste is intense and full flavored with huge rich dark chocolate and slightly smoky dark roast coffee notes upfront, followed by the aforementioned notes of licorice, dark toasty bread crust, malty oats, caramel, molasses, brown sugar, some nutty maple, dried fruit, apple, pear, grape, some spice, with woodsy floral earthy herbal grassy pine. The beer feels medium almost light bodied, not so creamy but more slick and slippery going down, with a crisp and clean moderate carbonation. Overall I'm really liking this intensely full-flavored Baltic porter from Tired Hands. Cheers all!

 

My favorite thread and I get to try a new beer today. I'm making Chicken Parmesan and angel hair today,and the beer will be Focol Banger. Im popping it for football today, be back at halftime.

 

Well, this isn't devil themed, unfortunately, but fear not, it's a new beer, and I will praise our dark lord Satan for influencing this beer.

Granite Roots Brewing - "Gose Well With Hiking"

I'm generally not a gose guy, but one of my co-workers brought this back from a daytrip in New Hampshire and brought me a bottle. I have to say, this is a damn delicious Gose. It's brewed with local black currants and blueberries. It definitely has a bit of the black currant upfront, but the back end is all blueberry. Tart, a little bit of salt, and delicious. I could drink this all summer.

 

New beer #3. I enjoyed the base beer, but this bba version is really something.

Sixpoint - Barrel-Aged 3 Beans
BBA porter - 10.1% abv
Score: 4.39 (+8.9% rDev)



L - 1 1/2 finger light beige head atop a black body.

S - bourbon, milk chocolate, brown sugar, molasses.

T - chocolate at first. A tiny bit of coffee but not prominent. A lot of vanilla/bourbon sweetness. Very little alcohol presence for being 10% abv.

F - medium body. Would have preferred this with a little more body, but I see what @Sixpoint were going for.

O - Extremely well balanced. I find with too many bba brews that the barrel is either in your face, or an afterthought. This is not the case here. All of the flavors are well integrated, and this is a hugely enjoyable brew to drink. Also dangerous...I have to stop myself from guzzling it.

 

Review #500 for me on BA. I should have picked somwthing better. Two Roads Road 2 Ruin. Pours a hazy deep golden color with a one inch white head that left blotchy lacing. Smells of pine, citrus and malt. Taste is very bitter with pine and grapefruit dominant, sweet malts present but short lived. Medium bodied, dry mouth feel, light to medium carbonation. This beer needed more flavor to interact better with the bitterness, balance just lacking.

 

I was left with the same impression. I am not a big fruit beer fan but this is one that I can kind of enjoy. One can per sitting though is enough.

 

All Mouth No Trousers Twin Elephant Brewing's take on a English Bitter Ale. Take is the key word here because it's like no other Bitter Ale I've tasted. The grains used are Pale Crystal and Carahall malts and oats.The hops used are Crystal, EKG, Motueka. Sterling and Vic Secret. The yeast is English Ale. It's a tasty brew that clocks in at 5% ABV. AMNT pours a tea like color with a thick off white head. The malt rules both the aroma and the taste. There is some bitterness in the finish. The give it a full but soft mouth feel. Overall an enjoyable and refreshing brew.

 

Good afternoon to all the satanic worshippers on this auspicious NBS 666, and good afternoon to all the other seemingly normal people who join us here every week.
It has been a busy long weekend here at home with the prep and serving of a fairly typical Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I did change up my brine recipe for the turkey this year and went with a butter milk based brine. I'm not sure it changed the flavors a lot but this may have kept more moisture in the bird.
I spent Friday and yesterday chasing down a few beers for my 12 DOX BIF box. Friday morning found me in Everett MA from there I did take time to stop at York River Landing in ME and sample a few of the great stouts they had on tap.
Saturday saw me headed north into Vermont on the hunt for another beer for my box. That brings me to today where I'm in the process of making turkey soup from the carcass that was left and sampling a couple of the beers I picked up in my travels.
I think that it was more luck than forethought that has allowed to have what I think is a beer fitting the theme of this NBS 666. This beer comes from Night Shift Brewing and is Darkling, the maple cinnamon variant. This is an imperial stout aged in bourbon and rye whiskey barrels with maple syrup and cinnamon added.

This beer pours a dark black color with a creamy tan head into my proper glassware.

The nose is maple with more rye than bourbon and just a hint of the cinnamon spice.
The taste has some nice maple sweetness blended well with the barrel flavors with the cinnamon coming through in the back of the mouth. I think that the rye whiskey is more prominent that the bourbon but the seems to be true in all the different blends this year.
The mouthfeel is smooth, I would like a little thicker mouthfeel in a stout of this caliber.
In all this is a well done BA Stout and I would have to say my favorite of the 3 varieties released this year.
May the Darkness be with you on this NBS 666.

 

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None of this 666 devil talk for me. Too much to be be thankful for. Let the Thanksgiving continue with a new beer and a new brewery. The Plymouth Beer Company’s Cranberry Wit. Picked this up at the Craft Beer Cellar in Plymouth, Mass a mere 4 blocks away from “the rock.”

Can dated 11.17.17

Thin white foam layer evaporated into a white ring over reddish orange translucent liquid

Aroma of cranberry

Taste of cranberry , yeastiness of a wit,

Tart, low sudsing , semi dry

Good beer

 

A-A hazy yellowish hue with a slight head and a little lacing.
A-A slight banana scent.
T-A decent wheat flavor and Belgian yeasts.
M-A light well made wheat beer.
O-A decent Belgian beer.

 

I can also see where this beer would be so much better on a hot day sitting outsife.

 

Guinness 200th anniversary.,solid black,mild amount of carbonation. A little thick,creamy feel which came off as just right. Aroma was raisin,dried fruit,roasted malt,and some coffee/chocolate. Taste was the same,came off a little sweet but in a pleasing way,not sickly sweet. The raisin,dried fruit was the most dominate flavor. Overall I gave it a 4.25, an excellent stout

 

I was concerned that I would not be able to find a beer, new to me, that carried an appropriate level of homage to the dark lord. Had I planned ahead perhaps, maybe I could have made ADWTD appear, but alas I wasn't able to swing it. Luckily, I was able to find this South St. Barrel Aged Imperial Satan's Pony

4.07/5 rDev +6.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

A solid beige head didn't take a lot of coaxing to appear, nor did it take much time to rescind to a full sheet, leaving behind spotty lacing above a deep ruby, translucent yet clear body. Nose has a slightly off putting rotting vegetable thing that precedes an otherwise pleasant oak and vanilla. Luckily, the taste brings none of the unfortunate elements of the nose, but instead picks up where the barrel character takes us. Rolling out of the oak is a bit of alcohol that coincides with the vanilla, culminating in a bit of caramel finish. Feel is mostly thin with a fairly dry finish that leaves mostly an alcohol generated bitter on the tongue. Good value

666 characters

 

Welcome to the fun Vann! Happy to see you finally make an appearance!

 

Sierra Nevada Trip In The Woods Cocoa Coconut Narwhal, 11.8% ABV, 50 IBU. Pours black with a 1+ finger tan head. Nose is predictably cocoa, coconut, coffee, and bourbon. Taste mostly follows, with bourbon leading, a bit of sweetness, and a mild bitter close. Excellent mouthfeel, overall outstanding. I was unprepared for the "666" theme today, but hey the woods can be scary, right?

 

Hello there, NBS. I've been sitting on the perfect beer for the occasion for a couple of years now, waiting for an excuse to pop the cork. And here it is.

I'm drinking the square root of 443,556 (by the way, it's 666), aka Track 8.



Someone stop the little devil boy from solving the equation! Here's the story on the back, should you care to read it:



So the bottle's undated, but at least a couple years old. Cork comes out with a pop. Beer is at room temperature.

Pours watery cola colored with hints of ruby. Thin cap dissipates almost immediately, leaving a ring of tiny bubbles along the edges. Beer is lively, initially bubbling like the molten lavas of the pits of hell.

Smells of cinnamon, raisin, slight bourbon booze, toffee sweetness.

I get the cinnamon raisin cookie taste, though it's surprisingly not that sweet. Some heat on the backend which could be the peppers, but could also be the alcohol. Very smooth and not at all boozy. The bourbon is noticeable, but not assertive. An easy sipper.

One of the most expensive bottles I've had, and probably not worth it, but I'm glad to have it once on this fitting occasion. Pairing well with Sisters of Mercy.

You think I should only drink 2/3 of it?